Do we want equality or is equality need?

As John Donne had it ‘No man is an island’ or if you prefer an even older source, as Cain asks God ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ and the answer of all world religions is ‘yes’ – we are here to look after one another, and not to ‘walk by on the other side.’

Our Prime Minster Gordon Brown is said to be fond of quoting this piece of poetry which for me sums it all up:

“It's the hands of others that grow the food we eat, sew the clothes we wear, build the homes we inhabit It's the hands of others that tend us when we are sick and lift us up when we fall It's the hands of others that bring us into the world and lower us into the grave.”

So, if you accept that people are not necessarily born with the patterns of inequality, injustice, unfairness, prejudice, ignorance, indifference, inaction, if most people prefer to live peaceably with their neighbours, why and how did we get to a state were in society we have lost our way on Equality and becomes so are we cut off from ethos Fairness, Rights, Equality, Discrimination, Autonomy.

The reason why equality in Britain is seen to be failing by some is not because there is not enough interest in it. It is because we haven’t really tried it yet. Or understand it yet.

• What do you think?
• Does it matter?